Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to virtualized computing environments and, more specifically, to transparently deploying an operating entity into a network data path of a virtualized computing environment.
Background Information
Many enterprises and their computer systems utilize virtual machines provided by a virtual data center (VDC) of a virtualized computing environment, wherein the VDC furnishes virtualized resources, such as network interfaces that are accessible over network data paths of a computer network. An instance of a virtual machine (virtual machine instance, VMI) may include a guest operating system (OS) configured to utilize system (e.g., hardware) resources of the VDC that are managed by a hypervisor of the VMI. The VMI may also include an intermediary manager configured to manage the guest OS operating within the VMI and implement one or more services that enhance guest utilization of the VDC resources.
Typically, the intermediary manager and guest OS are independent operating entities (OE) such that the intermediary manager can “see” network traffic of the guest OS exchanged over a network data path via the hypervisor. As an OE, the intermediary manager may also exchange network traffic over the network data path via the network interface provided by the VDC. However, provision of a network interface for the VMI by the VDC usually includes assignment of a limited hardware resource, e.g., a network interface hardware address, which is shared by the intermediary manager and guest OS to communicate over the network data path. From the perspective of the VDC, one OE is assigned the hardware address within the VMI which cannot be changed, i.e., the hardware address is fixed by the VDC. As a result, the VDC will “blindly” drop any network packet that does not have the correctly assigned address of the VMI. Therefore, a problem involves managing network traffic to two independent OEs with one hardware address.